William Ventura

Bill, also known as “Billy Boy” and “Beeeee-leeeee”, was fittingly born during the world’s biggest annual party, New Year’s Eve, in 1958. He spent his childhood with his sister and cousins, running up and down the halls of his extended family’s railroad apartments in Manhattan and Queens and buying penny candy from Marty’s on Broadway between 139th and 140th. As a young adult, Bill attended Cardinal Hayes High School and played in a garage band with men who would become lifelong best friends. Bill met his wife Teresa in 1987, whom he married in 1990. They moved to sunny Orlando in 1991 with their two daughters, and welcomed a baby boy a few years later.

Bill was a devoted family man and friend. To his wife, Bill was the calendar, remembering key events like their anniversary every year or reminding her of upcoming jury duty obligations. He was also her primary translator, able to interpret any of her words and make them legible for a general audience—the truest act of love. To his children, Bill was an ardent ally. He often dispensed life advice to them, starting his sage (and sometimes suspect) guidance with his signature phrase “Not for nothin’...”. Bill also was his children’s primary cultural attaché, passing on significant tradition that included literary masterpiece Anne of Green Gables; the music of Pink Floyd and contemporaries; and New York food establishments Papaya King, Gray’s Papaya, and Parisi Brothers Bakery.

To his extended family and friends, as well as random strangers, Bill was the ultimate storyteller. He would tell a joke like it was a Coppola production, carefully crafting the scene before swiftly delivering the punchline and waiting for laughter to inevitably follow. These stories were often told over a strong drink mixed by Bill himself, like his trademark sangria. That beverage was only one of many, many reasons Bill will be remembered as the ultimate life of the party (a well-guarded family recipe, for sangria purchase please inquire within).

A jack of all trades, Bill had a varied professional career that included (but is not limited to): line inspector for the New York City government, fingerprint technician for the state of Florida, and amateur film producer at Coffee Table Studios. He loved recounting stories from his jobs, including the time he inspected a high-security Drug Enforcement Administration office and saw things like [redacted by order of the DEA]; he always said “I couldn’t believe it!”. For the final 20 years of his working life, Bill was an inaugural agent of the Transportation Security Administration and served at the Sanford and Orlando International Airports until his retirement from the agency in 2021. Bill was always proud to show his retirement TSA badge to passersby, regardless of when or where.

Bill was a pious man and was an active member of the community at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Orlando. He participated in numerous organizations at the church, including Caminantes con Jesús and Christ Renews His Parish. Through these groups he met the men that would become his confidantes for the last years of his life, his so-called “Panera Bread Old Man Gang” that was routinely at risk of being kicked out of their namesake restaurant for laughing too loudly.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents Narciso “Ciso” and Josefa “Doña Josefina” Ventura (née Ortiz). He is survived by his wife Teresa; his children Rosiris “Rosi” Coussa, Josephine “Josie” Ventura-Young, and Brian Ventura, and their husbands Michael, Steven, and Christofer; his grandchildren Kaitlyn, Cara, Ashlynn, Anthony, Michael, and James; and his sister Geri Block and her husband Howie. He is additionally survived by Seymore the cat, who (as Bill would like to remind everyone from the Great Beyond) is still available for adoption after seventeen years.

The family welcomes flowers or donations to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Bill’s name to honor his memory.